Wastewater treatment is the process of removing impurities from wastewater. An objective of wastewater treatment is to produce a stream of treated effluent suitable for discharge or reuse back in the environment. Wastewater treatment may comprise primary treatment, secondary treatment, and/or tertiary treatment. Primary treatment can involve the use of septic tanks to separate solids, fats, oils, greases and produce primary effluent. Secondary treatment may be used to substantially degrade the impurities contained in the wastewater fluid. In further detail, wastewater treatment comprises performing the functions of biochemical oxygen demand (“BOD”) and total suspended solids (“TSS”) removal and reduction.
Jokaso devices represent one form of wastewater treatment device and are suitable for use with the present embodiments and alternatives. Typical Jokaso devices include those having five functional chambers. The first chamber works as a trash tank under anaerobic condition much like a septic tank. The second chamber is typically filled with filter media for anaerobic biofilm filtration process. The third chamber is also filled with filter media but kept aerobic by dispersing compressed air. The fourth chamber works as a buffer storage tank for the treated water. The last chamber is for disinfection purposes (sometimes referred to as tertiary treatment).
A final step in wastewater treatment is the disinfection of the treated effluent in order to substantially reduce the number of impurities in the effluent to be discharged back into the environment. UV light disinfection represents one wastewater disinfection method. Shortwave UV light, wavelength between 230 nm and 270 nm, typically around 254 nm, destroys microorganisms by causing molecular rearrangements in its DNA and RNA. This blocks replication and the ability to form colonies. Compared to other substances, water can be an excellent transmitter of UV light.